Changing title tags, do we need 301 redirects

[EcomLkwd]

I found many duplicate title tags and I'm in the process of changing it  Do I need 301 redirects in place when I switch it? I am only changing the title tag.

Also, we are switching over to a new site very soon, I am worried that we might be using too many 301 redirect "hops" because we are doing a lot of optimization as well. (video from matt cutts describing 301 redirects and hops: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lVPrYoBkA.

Does anyone have any experience in doing too many redirect hops that it affected your rankings? Any good ideas to avoid this?

[TomRayner]

If you're just changing the title tags, then no, you do not need to setup a 301 redirect. You can leave that URL as it is.

As for hops, I would say that anything more than 3 hops and the search engine is not likely to follow it any further.  Here's an article on the topic, complete with a Matt Cutts video on redirects, as well as specifically addressing the hop issue (it's at the bottom of the article).

[littlesthobo]

Re changing the title tags, no you don't need to add any redirection.  Yo only need to do this if you also change the url and the existing url has already been indexed.

I've done quite a bit of redirection on some sites when optimising and so far suffered no issues, but I'm going to go away and view that video!

[jws8118]

I agree with both responses, there is no reason to 301 redirect just because of new title tags.  I think 3 redirects is really pushing it in terms of retaining your link value but 2 I have done several times with no effects on rankings.

Hope this helps!

[irvingw]

No redirect needed when changing title tags, only knowledge to optimize them well.

Regarding your 301's, I would look at what redirects the site is currently doing and see if it can be cleaned up if you think you are daisy chaining 301 redirects due to multiple site overhauls.

[TextMarketing]

The 301 redirects are NOT needed. Just make sure that your title tags target your keywords and that they are at the front of your title.